INTRODUCTION TO
SONGS OF THE FIELDS
Dunsany Castle,
June, 1914.
IF one who looked from a tower for a new star, watching for years the same part of the sky, suddenly saw it (quite by chance while thinking of other things), and knew it for the star for which he had hoped, how many millions of men would never care?
And the star might blaze over deserts and forests and seas, cheering lost wanderers in desolate lands, or guiding dangerous quests; millions would never know it.
And a poet is no more than a star.
If one has arisen where I have so long looked for one, amongst the Irish peasants, it can be little more than a secret that I shall share with those who read this book because they care for poetry.
I have looked for a poet amongst the Irish peasants because it seemed to me that almost only amongst them there was in daily use a
